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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St.. Atlanta, G«. Entered as second-class •patter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March S. I*7*. Subscription Price- Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail. $5.00 a year. Payable In advance. The “Little People” Are ALWAYS Robbed MR* Somehow They Do Not Seem to Get Used to It. By Learn ing How to Vote They Could Change Conditions Perhaps. But Being Robbed Is Easier Than Learning to Vote. We have received a letter from a man who says he had a small amount of money in a dishonest trust company in New York. The substance of his complaint is that he can’t get his money, and the other “little ones” can not get THEIR money, because some “big people” must he thought of first. The state of New York wants monby out of the deceased trust company. As a matter of fact, the officials of the state that put the money in the trust company, like the officials of New York city that put money in that trust company, might well be held responsible for their lack of “judgment” or worse. And equally as a matter of course, neither city nor state should take precedence over an ordinary small investor who lacked the opportunity that the state and city had to ascertain the real character of the trust company, and who may have been deceived and led on by the fact that the city and the •fate were depositors in the dishonest concern. The man who writes to us complains that “an individual” hae a claim against the concern amounting to $320,000, and the banking authorities are unwilling to give the name of that indkvidnal, who is holding off the payment of little claims. Our correspondent must realize that a man who has a elainj of $320,000 is “a big fellow” and not one of the little people. And a big fellow is treated very differently from little peopfla, fu» the IfttJe people ought to know’ by this time. ft is alleged that Andrew Carnegie contributed a good deal of money to the dead and dishonest trust company that bore his name. He was in no way responsible for the dis honesty of the company, he was not the owner of the com pany. But because it took his name, he helped the company with money. He would have done much better to state pub licly his lack of confidence in the concern and the fact that he had no connection with it. That would have protected the little people who were doubtless led to deposit and lose their money because his name was used. This ease of a trust company anxious to look after lhe big people, and rather impertinent in dealing with little people that have been robbed, is not unusual. They say that the eels get used to being skinned. It would seem that by this time the little people might also get used to that painful process, for it is applied to them fre quently. The little people should remember that only united action grts results. The big and rich men are closely united. And what, is more, they’ have union and force represented in their ftawaay Evwry dollar reprints a day’s labor. A million dollars fWprrßent. the work that eonld be accomplished by a million tn«s tn ana day l —deducting what it would cost those men for fbed su»d ckrthtng. When • man has a million dollars, he can combine in the atgnfng of <me sfngle check the power exerted by a million men th one day> That Tar why the big men are powerful. 'They use. in com part, form, the money that represents accumulated millions of labor. You are not surprised to find an army of a hundred thou sand men very powerful Why dhould you be surprised when yon find that a man who ha« in a bank the result of the efforts of a million men can exert the power that one man can not exercise? The little people must unite and work in a compact body, as the dollars of the big people are united and put to work for the big people’s benefit. And the little people must work AT THE POLLS before election, as the dollars of the big people WORK UPON THE CUPIDITY OF PUBLIC OFFICIAL. IN SECRET AFTER THE ELECTIONS The fact is that our people have become accustomed to pay ing little attention to government. They think and worry and plan for half a day before they decide what sort of a hat they will buy for the winter, and they try on a dozen suits of clothes before they make up their minds which one to purchase. Rut they pay very little, if any. attention to the selection of officials, any one of which may cost them the price of many hats and many suits of clothes. It will take a long time for the people to take the trouble TO THINK, to interest, themselves in government, to compel the passage of laws that will let them remove dishonest officials from top to bottom, and the passage of other laws that will compel referring law mak ing to them and empower them to initiate their own law making. Whaling Industry Doomed 'lhe cm! of the whaling industry is in sight, according to Roy Andrews, who recently returned from Corea with valua ble additions for the museums in New York City. As in other fields the Japanese have made the most of the "hale, and canned whale is eaten in the Orient as a substitute for beef, which is costly and hard to obtain Only since the Russian War have the little brown men made whaling a science, hut already they have foreseen the p nd of the pursuit, and are now engaged in perfecting a trawl "■ st uh which steady supply of fish may bo relied upon, j Instead of the wasteful methods of our forefathers the Jap- ' have treated lhe whale with the same intelligent handling ■mt the modern packer bestows on the steer Nothing is al lowed to go to waste. 'hir propensity for killing will soon put Hie whale in a •lass with the earner pigeon and the dod" The Atlanta Georgian THE JUGGLER Bv HAL COFFMAN. ’ •< Jr mfik gi*_ Vs a\ \ \ IL JfM •v'N z llgJI fwlu ifex ■<.. MARK TWAIN’S last book was called "Is Shakespeare Dead?" and jn it the fa mous humorist, who had often proved that he was no mere literary clown, but a man of singularly pro found judgment and most pene trating intelligence, ridiculed, in his inimitable way, the time-honored legend that William Shakespeare, or Shakspere, or Shagsper, or what ever really was his variously spelled name, had written the im mortal plays and poems that go under the name of "William Shake speare" Notwithstanding the stud ied silence of most of the Shake spearean literary critics, who would apparently have been glad if the world could be kept in ignorance of what so widely read and univer sally praised an author as Mark Twain thought on this subject, bis book has recently appeared in a European edition of English mas terpieces which everybody reads, so that the attempt to smother it has notably failed. Followed the Footmarks. Mark Twain was simply follow ing and illuminating the footmarks of many able writers who have traversed this ground since Delia Bacon opened the controversy more than half a century ago. Probably hundreds of books and pamphlets have been published with the aim of proving that Mr. Shakespeare, of Stratford-on-Avon, was not and could not have been the writer of the Shakespeare plays and poems; that, at best, he was nothing more than a fairly good actor, whose knowledge of the world and man kind was confined to what a play actor, in those days when play act ing was a profession that culti vated people looked down upon, could acquire; that he was so igno rant that it Is a nice question whether he could even write his name; that he died without the slightest public notice being taken of his death and leaving no trace of books, manuscripts, notes. let ters or any. the least, of the in numerable things which a great thinker, writer, scholar, poet and philosopher (such as the author of the play s evidently was) must nat urally have possessed: that many of the greatest of the plays made their first appearance YEARS AFT ER HIS DEATH, that he never claimed to be the author of the masterpieces bearing his name, and took no interest in their preserva tion; that hundreds of the most wonderful lines in the great plays were added by an unknown hand after he was in his grave, and many other remarkable facts of a simi lar nature. It has also been shown that he was a person of so little importance that not a scrap of gen uine information exists concerning FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 27. 1912. Who Was Shakespeare? By GARRETT P. SERVISS his schooling, if ever he had any, or concerning the manner in which he acquired his universal knowl edge or developed his matchless power of literary expression. Yet the plays and poems were written by some one! Who was it, then? Most of those who have un dertaken to demolish the Shake speare legend have assumed that it was the great scholar and universal genius of that age—Lord Francis Bacon —and that Shakespeare, ttie actor, was simply a puppet used by Bacon to conceal his authorship, because, at that time, and particu larly because of the political sig nificance of the plays, it would have been fatal to Bacon to be known as their author This is the view taken by Sir Ed win Durning-Lawrence, who has just sent me a copy of a pamphlet written by him on "The Shake speare Myth!" I do not find this pamphlet to be as convincing as many of the more extensive works on the subject that I have read, but I mention it as showing how vain is the hope of the defenders of Shakespeare of Stratford through thick and thin that they may be able to discourage further question ing by denouncing all doubters with contemptuous and scurrilous epithets. THERE ARE AS GOOD AND AS ABLE THINKERSWON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION AS ON THEIRS. 1 do not think that I could recommend to any intelligent person a course of reading of more fascinating interest, or more in forming. than that which would be furnished by an attentive perusal of the best that has been written “Votes for Wimmin” By DAMON RUNYON. | HEAR Plunk Peters talkin' down in Kerry's drum one night About this votes fer wimmin, w'ich Plunk Peters sez ain't right I hadn't thought so. neither, but if Plunk is in the fight. I'll take a chanst on Mother an’ the gals! Now Plunk has got an inch o' space betwixt his eyes an' hair; He could hide behind a gimlet an' have lots o' room to spare. So when Plunk sez votes fer wimmin is the bunk. I must deciare I'll take a chanst on Mother an' the gals! Sez. Plunk. “When wimmin git to vote, where will us fellers be? They’ll vote us out o' office jest as sure as shoutin', see.? An' they'll be no more good gravy from them public jobs for me.” So I'll take a chanst on .Mother an' the gals! For I've knowed Plunk fer twenty years, an' I am here to state They ain't a hair in Peters' bead that's even nearly straight; An' 1 never had no show to date when Peters fixed the slate— So I'll take a chanst on Mothei an' the gals! • on both sides of this curious con troversy. The “anti-Shakespear ists” have one disadvantage—they have, as the nature of the subject rendered inevitable, attracted to their side a number of persons who ordinarily are looked upon as "cranks,” and whose concurrence is rather an obstruction than an aid to their cause. An Appeal. Now. I am not going to express a definite opinion on the question as to who really did write the great est masterpieces that English liter ature can boast, but 1 am going to make an appeal sot a concerted ef fort. by competent scholars, to clear up the mystery. There are many who think that an exploration of the Shakespeare tomb at Stratford might cast a great deal of light upon it. Why, then, should not such an exploration be made? To speak of “profanation" in such a case is in itself a profanation. Others are of opinion that a more thorough search than private means have yet rendered possible of the innumerable depositories of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, letters, etc., which exist in England and else where might have surprising re sults. Many discoveries, bearing more or less upon the subject in controversy, have already been made in unexpected places, one of them in London, only two or three years ago. What is needed is ORGANIZA rrON and MONEY, and the world at large would, surely, be as much interested in knowing who the "Wil liam Shakespeare" whom it has been taught to revere as the foremost of all its geniuses really was, as in knowing the character of the ice covering the south pole. THE HOME PAPER Dorothy D i x Writes on In Other | p i * people s Houses 1 Youth and Age, -• She Says, Can Never Reconcile Their Varying Points of View 'vL By DOROTHY DIX j AN old mother went to live with . her son, whose wife’s mother also lived in the same house. Both the son and his wife did all they could to make the old lady happy, but she disapproved of the manners and point of view of the daughter-in-law’s mother, and felt it to be her sacred duty to express her opinion freely on the subject. Trouble ensued. Then the mother went to live with her married daughter, but she didn’t like her son-in-law’s rela tives any better than she did her daughter-in-law's, and she likewise felt it nothing more than right, and her privilege, to vent her senti ments. thereby stirring up strife again, and precipitating another family row. It appears that before mother ar rived on the scene both her son and her daughter were on the most affectionate terms with their “in laws,” and got along beautifully with them, and because they re fused to sever these kindly ties, and take mother’s part in the fool ish quarrels, she feels tnat she has been very badly treated, and calls them undutiful children, and re gards herself as a persecuted mar- ’ tyr. Os course there is no use in telling this old lady that her son and daughter are right, and that there’s just one person more fool ish than the individual who is al ways getting into quarrels, and that is the one who takes up some body else’s quarrel. Nor is there any good in telling her that, so far from having a grievance in her children loving their "in-laws," she should be down on her knees thanking heaven for the miracle that has been vouchsafed in their behalf. The Conceit of Age. Nor is it worth while to remind her that other people have just as good, a right to their own code of ethics and conduct as she has, and that she holds no divine commis sion to go around reforming the world, and forcing other people to measure up to her little narrow inch rule. Colossal self-conceit is one of the unlovely characteristics of age that only the biggest and broadest minded people escape. By- the time a woman has admired herself for sixty-odd years vanity becomes an incurable disease. By the time she has been sure she was exactly right for half a century you could remove a mountain easier than you could shake her faith in her own infalli bility. and her mind is as imper vious to the suggestion that she might be in the wrong as a granite bowlder is to the prick of a cam bric needle. Old people always think they are Solomons; that their way of doing things is the only way; their point of view the only correct one. and this is what makes it so difficult for any old man or woman, and especially an old woman, to live in another person s house. The old woman quarrels with het daughter-in-law because the daughter-in-law doesn’t keep house exactly as she did. and doesn’t bring up her children just as she brought up hers, and because daughter-in-law goes out to clubs 'then she never did, or wears tight skirts when site wore hoop skirts, or she uses the best china every day when she always kept hers under lock and key, and brought it out only on state occasions. - Or the old lady nags and f-i-t< :lt her son-in-law because ) )e when she disapproves of tr>l,a,. or he has beer with his <J| lin -r when she is a W. C. T. I’.. m hr- In, old chums of whom she Is suspl clous, or because he wili read the Sunday newspaper instead ~f g ,,. ing to church. It never occurs to the old that her daughter-in-law max h» a far more intelligent woman than she is; that her way of keeping j house and raising children may 1., a. thousand times more scientific, or that the daughter-in-law’s way may represent the advance in pros ress of a generation, and that even if it doesn’t, the daughter-in-law has just as good a right tn run her own affairs in her way a- she he! to run hers in her way. It Is Impertinence. Nor does it dawn on her that any man who pays for the support of a home has the privilege of doing in it. as he pleases, and that it is an insolent impertinence for any nut. sider to interfere with him. Mother-in-law is always an un welcome guest, whether it is- in her son's or her daughter’s house, and it is her own fault in the ntajo-ity of cases that this is trim. And it 5 true because she can no; keep i - finger out of her children’s pms. Because a woman happens to h» the mother of her ho«t n- hnn ■« does not make her any the u s- i guest under his or her roof. ami ' she could only remember this, mil conduct herself according to tho l ilies 'laid down by decent -0.-t. - - for the guidance of guest* it won' enormously augment the -mri of human happiness. Because a woman is stay ins In her son’s house gives her no ■ tght to try to boss it and her daughter in-law, or to criticise tit" 1.t.-.I she eats. On the contrary. It sir-ull make her that much more disc'Wt end chary of making suggr-iions. Daughter-In-law will ask f.e h«r advice when she wants it. ami t‘ lfl wise thing is to withhold voun.-l even when it Is requested Nor does the fact that sh< r- liv ing with her daughter gh ea wom an the right to police lar son-in law- and make herself <li-.igie. m'.’ to him. On the contrary pay’s for her board with it is all the more up to It- : that society agreeable, sooi flattering. Are Not Adaptable. Old people are not nji.-r-l it seems impossible for tin wmi.-in who has ruled supreme in " house to take second pin body else’s. It is likewi*. i ble for a mother to r-<--iltz»- t children ever grow up .ur-i when they are married tin duty to husband or wife that - even before their duty to Il ls why the advent of the m-" law tn a family is almost the beginning of trouble no mother should go i-- ’i any one of her married «• it is possible to avoid it I’ndoubtedly daugb’o-i and sons-in-law are not live with. They lack much tience and consideration it with their wives' ami mothers. But mother . , i . >xmn?.it not cleat, either, and who Ims really her - est at heart. wh<» !<’V» S . selfishly, will go to an " lal hotm- before she will to with them-